Shingle

shingle

1. coarse gravel, esp the pebbles found on beaches

2. a place or area strewn with shingle

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

shingle

[′shiŋ·gəl]

(geology)

Pebbles, cobble, and other beach material, coarser than ordinary gravel but roughly the same size and occurring typically on the higher parts of a beach.

(materials)

A rectangular piece of wood, metal, or other material that is used like a tile and arranged in overlapping rows for covering roofs and walls.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

shingle

A roofing unit of wood, asphaltic material, slate, tile, concrete, asbestos cement, or other material cut to stock lengths, widths, and thickness; used as an exterior covering on sloping roofs and side walls; applied in an overlapping fashion; usually in one of the following designs: chisel pattern, coursed pattern, diamond pattern, fishscale pattern, sawtooth pattern. Also see wood shingle and pine shingle.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Shingle

 

rock fragments 1-10 cm in diameter that have been rounded to varying degrees. The sharp-pointed fragments are rounded by the running water of rivers or by lake and seacoast waves. Sea shingle usually has a flatter shape than river shingle. Shingle is categorized as small (1-2.5 cm), medium (2.5-5 cm), and large (5-10 cm). Shingle is used chiefly in road construction.

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Shingle

 

a wooden roofing material in the form of a small plate having a wedge-like cross section. The sharp edge of the shingle fits into a groove in the thick edge of the neighboring shingle when the roof is covered. Shingles are made by hand (by splitting radially) and by machine (by sawing) from a straight layer of white spruce (the best shingles), pine, or aspen. Shingles are 50–60 cm long and 9–11 cm wide. They will last, depending on the climate and on the type and treatment of the wood used, for 25–35 years. Shingles are used in rural construction.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.